I'm trying to find a nice e-reader and I've more or less singled down the choice to a Kobo Glo, but I can't really find answers to a bunch of my questions. Can someone here answer me these?

Let's start with the dealbreaker: is the Kobo riddled with BS like the Kindle? I just want a device that I can turn on and read my books. No online nonsense, no accounts, forced sign-up/registering, logins, cloud storage, tethering, binding to a single PC, needing a PC to even use/start/setup the thing, library programs that have to sync, blocked content from competitors, facebook/twitter/myspace integration or similar crap.

* Can I just insert a SD card and read the files from it or is the SD slot just expandable memory that's added to the normal 2GB and has to be filled over USB?

* Can the device function like a normal USB drive? Just plug it in and put files on it?

* Can I save multiple bookmarks? Bookmarks with a note would be even better. If yes, does this work on all formats? How about annotations?

* Do images display more like the left or right one? AFAIK Kobo does 16 degrees of grey. (left is indexed, then b/w, right is b/w, then indexed)

Thanks!

/edit: Oh yeah this is in this section because alternative suggestions are welcome too!

1) No you cannot just turn it on and read books. You have to do an initial setup. Either through a computer or via wifi. However once you are setup that is it.

You are NOT tied to the Kobo store, you can shop anywhere that sells epubs or PDFs (I do not recommend PDFs if you can at all help it). Mobi files can be converted to epub via Calibre.

Ahh social networking, where you have a million "friends" who don't really give a damn if you have to go take a sh!t and have to blog about it afterwards or even during... Yes there is some facebook integration, no twitter or myspace. However it can easily be ignored just don't fill in the "sign in" area under Settings -> Account -> Facebook account. If it wasn't I wouldn't even bother with a Kobo period. No Cloud storage although I understand Dropbox can be setup and used with the Kobo.

You do need Adobe Digital Editions if you are buying books with DRM. DRM can be later removed but you do need ADE initially.

2) Micro SD cards are usuable. Mileage will vary as the Kobos can be finicky with brands and/or size of card. Sandisk cards seem to be alright, currently, I have a 16G in mine with no troubles.

Card must be filled separately as far as I know. Personally I store all my books on the SD card, just makes things easier for me.

3) Yes, functions just like a usb stick. If there is a SD card in the Kobo it will show up as a separate drive from the Kobo itself.

4) It does support multiple bookmarks with notes.

Working on all formats, of that I am not sure.

Annotations work, not sure on exporting the annotations but I believe Calibre can do this. I don't use Calibre much so can't say this positively.

5) Display is like the Right image (B/W, indexed)

Like any device the firmware has some bugs, 2.3.1 has a bug where paging and starting a new chapter makes the font very tiny. Seems to be related to sideloaded epubs. Apparently fixed in the Japanese release v2.3.2 which has not been released to the Americas as far I know. Does not always return to the page you were reading before you put it to sleep/turned off. Instead it may go back a page or 2 when woken up or turned on. Tracked down to margin size on sideloaded epubs. Workaround is to set margin size on reader to zero. I don't like it at zero so I tolerate this bug.

More info can be found on the Kobo part on this forum.

All in all I really like my Glo despite the bugs. I've had the Kobo Wifi, then a Touch and now a Glo. I've liked each one. If you get a Glo I highly recommend the Sleep cover. Not so much that it puts the Kobo to sleep when you close the cover but I find the covers are quite nice with the elastic band to keep the cover closed.

Got any other suggestions? It seems like deciding which e-reader to get isn't about the features you want, but mainly about avoiding the "features" you don't want. The Kobo seems to be one of the lesser evils, although the setup-spying does leave a bad aftertaste.. but that can be circumvented with a virtual machine, I guess.

When I bought my Glo, I created a brand-new Kobo account for device registration only and have never bought anything on it. After registering the device, you can delete the Kobo app from your desktop and/or turn off wireless. You can turn off the social networking features. I remove DRM before side-loading, so I don't have the device registered with ADE. The only thing I do need to do this is a computer.

I have never experienced any of the firmware bugs mentioned by Danger.

A Sony T2 would behave in a similar manner as the Kobo, I believe. I seem to recall needing to register my T1 device with the Sony desktop initially, but maybe that has changed.

Cybook Odyssey HD Frontlight would suit you. Works out of the box, no hassle no extra software, no registration, no indexing - you have folder structure. You can get it with or without (called edition 2013) lighted screen.
Yes to the first 3 asterisks (first questions in line), dunno to the last one.

The Sony readers would probably meet your purpose as well. If your books do not have DRM, then you never have to register your reader. There are several options to transfer books. Just insert an SD card, download from the Internet browser from a website or Dropbox, connect by USB and drag and drop onto the device, or use a library management program like calibre. If your books have DRM, then you do need to register with the Sony store. However you can do it wirelessly on the 950, T1 and T2 models. You do not have to have the Sony desktop software on your computer anymore. If you want to buy books from Sony, then you can do it on the reader wirelessly or also via the cart system on their website. You no longer need the Sony software to buy books either.

I managed to test the Kobo in a store with a bunch of epubs and other files I brought on a SD card and it behaved well enough to buy it. PDF viewing is atrocious, but that's not really what I planned to do with it.

Went home, set it up with a clean virtual machine and rolled it back after the deed was done & turned off wifi. Organizing my books into shelves was a bit annoying, too bad that the Kobo doesn't identify folders as shelves. Now I'm trying to find a nice cover, the usual ones are superfat and the slim gecko is kinda meh..

I managed to test the Kobo in a store with a bunch of epubs and other files I brought on a SD card and it behaved well enough to buy it. PDF viewing is atrocious, but that's not really what I planned to do with it.

A good way of testing. But when I bought mine, they hadn't set the device up properly.

Quote:

Went home, set it up with a clean virtual machine and rolled it back after the deed was done & turned off wifi. Organizing my books into shelves was a bit annoying, too bad that the Kobo doesn't identify folders as shelves. Now I'm trying to find a nice cover, the usual ones are superfat and the slim gecko is kinda meh..

If you use calibre, it can do the shelf creation for you. See the sticky at the top of the Kobo forum. Also, the Kobo firmware allows books to be in multiple shelves. With that, folders as shelves doesn't work as well.

For covers, there is discussion in the Kobo forum. I can't recommend one as I don't use one.